BENGALURU: Office-goers taking Sarjapura Outer Ring Road were in for a nasty surprise on Friday morning when they had to spend almost six hours on the road before reaching office —thanks to Bangalore Water Supply and Sewarage Board’s (BWSSB) unannounced work which reportedly got delayed due to heavy rain on Thursday night. The project will take two days more to complete, and commuters should take alternative routes to avoid traffic blocks, BBMP officials advised.
The construction is part of a project to supply water to Bommanahalli zone. Commuters took to Twitter and said there was water-logging near Wipro corporate office on Sarjapura Road, and traffic was blocked from Silk Board to Iblur. Traffic began to pile up at 7.30am, and it took commuters almost two hours extra to reach office.
Sasidhar BK tweeted, “...I don’t know why BWSSB was doing this work on a weekday. If they had put up a message on Facebook or Twitter, commuters could have taken alternative routes.”
Another commuter, Mahabalesha CF said, “I was at Agara Junction, trying to take a U-turn. It normally take about 5 minutes but today, it took 30 minutes,” he said.
Prashanth Hoizal, who has been travelling from Silk Board to Kadubeesanahalli for 12 years, said, “I took two hours and twenty minutes to cover 11km, which usually takes one hour. There is a lack of coordination between BWSSB and traffic police.”
Blaming the traffic police control room, Srivatsa VK said,”Till 9am, there was no one to control the traffic, I called HSR police station, and nobody attended. There were traffic blocks at Silk Board Road, HSR signal and Agara Junction, it took me about three hours to reach Marathahalli from Kanakapura Road.”
Head constable of Madiwala traffic police station said, “Due to water-logging, there was a traffic block from 7am to 8.30am. As BWSSB continues construction work on Saturday and Sunday, traffic could be obstructed.”
Pradeep Kuchangi, AEE, BWSSB project, told TNIE, “As art of BWSSB’s work, trenchless pipeline crossing across Sarjarpura main road is being laid to feed water to Bellandur village. Excavation work began at 10.30am on Thursday and completed two hours late, at 7.30am on Friday, on account of an unexpected heavy downpour in the early hours. The Residents’ Welfare Association, BBMP and police department were informed.”